


Mark of Pride

by HopeStoryteller



Series: Gleefully Voicing This Eulogy [4]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: (it's Hornet), (the lesbian part absolutely is), (the trans part is not relevant here), Ceremonial Duel, Gay, Gen, POV Lesbian Character, Sort Of, Trans Female Character, and having about 5 seconds in the middle where she is briefly a flustered lesbian, it's literally just Hornet fighting the Mantis Lords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28541976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: Long before Ghost returns to Hallownest—though notthatlong before—a new challenger approaches the lords of the Mantis Tribe. Her needle is lethal, and she will feel no sadness in a weakling's demise. Particularly not if said weakling turns out to be her.But she is not weak. Neither, though, are the Mantis Lords.(Honestly, she's just tired of having to fight mantises every time she cuts through the Fungal Wastes.)
Series: Gleefully Voicing This Eulogy [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028826
Comments: 14
Kudos: 75





	Mark of Pride

She is Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest, though none of that matters here. All that matters is her needle and thread. Her needle is sharper than any nail, carefully threaded and rethreaded in preparation for this very battle.

She is Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest, but right now she is merely a challenger. She gives little thought to escape should her challenge go poorly, for she is more likely to perish in flight than in battle, particularly against them.

She is Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest,  _ and she cannot lose. _

Staring up at the three on their thrones, she thrusts her needle to the side in the traditional gesture of challenge. They rise as one, nail-lances at the ready.

Hornet stands her ground. “I challenge you, Lords of the Mantis Tribe,” she says, unnecessarily. Her intent is clear, but better to leave no room for misunderstanding. “I am—”

“Hornet,” the central lord interrupts. “Princess of two kingdoms. We know who you are. The treaty does not hold for those bugs sick or foolish enough to wander into our domain.”

“And it should not,” she agrees. “I would not have you put the well-being of what little of Hallownest is left over the well-being of your people. Or Deepnest, for that matter.”

She is, perhaps, all that remains of Deepnest now, save infected shells and abandoned weavings. Hornet will not go back to check, not unless her other duties carry her there, and then she will be briefly in and out. It’s a cruel sort of irony, that the place where she had begged to spend more time in her youth has become the third to last place she would like to visit now.

Her mother would have hated the state her kingdom is in now. If she’d known what would come of the Wyrm’s plan, would she have agreed to Dream? Would she have demanded more than a child? Would Hornet have existed at all?

“In that,” the left lord proclaims, “you have the wisdom your father lacked.”

_ He is not dead, _ Hornet doesn’t say, because she doesn’t know. Not for sure, and she wouldn’t say if she was.

_ He lacked much more than wisdom, _ Hornet doesn’t say, because one does not speak ill of the potentially dead, no matter how greatly she wishes to do so, and no matter how right she would be.

_ He is not my father, _ Hornet doesn’t say, because there is nothing she can ever do to change her parentage. The only thing she can do is carry on the doomed task he began, and hope that it somehow, impossibly, saves what little hasn’t been lost yet.

“I thank you.”

The left lord snorts. “That was not a compliment, little princess.”

Hornet does not bristle at being called  _ little. _ She notices instead that the left lord has a tiny notch in her left horn. “As you insist.”

“Why are you here, then?” The middle lord asks. Her horns are unblemished. “For Hallownest? For Deepnest?”

“For  _ myself.” _

Hornet is so,  _ so _ tired of being chased down by angry mantises. She continues, with a touch more anger than she should allow into her words in lieu of her needle, “I am here to  _ challenge _ you, for myself—and to learn, should you allow it.”

The right lord, having previously been completely silent until now, derisively  _ laughs _ at that. “You? Learn from  _ us? _ The arrogance of Hallownest truly knows no bounds.” She has a notch in her right horn.

“Well, I would win the right of passage first, naturally.” Hornet taps her needle to the ground. “You would not  _ believe _ the lengths I had to go to in order to find out  _ how. _ Or, perhaps you will.”

She notices, quite suddenly, that there is a fourth, broken down throne with no occupant. Hornet decides not to ask. She’s infuriated her opponents enough already.

“Enough chatter,” the left lord says, following her gaze with a sneer. “Gracilis—”

The middle lord with the un-notched horns nods once, silently. Then, she leaps from her throne. Hornet barely brings up her needle in time to parry, but she does, and strikes back. Gracilis takes the blow without even flinching. She charges again, too fast for Hornet to parry.

The nail-lance  _ stings, _ and Hornet leaps back, considering. Parrying the blows of the lesser mantises worked well enough, but not so here. Their lances are just  _ slightly _ longer than her needle. That alone would not be a problem without the addition of the fact that she  _ is _ significantly smaller than them herself.

Coupled with that, her best strength is her agility. She can outspeed her. Not easily, but it’s  _ possible. _ And so, calling upon her inner silk, she does.

She trades blow after blow with Gracilis, matching her strike by strike in the deadly dance that is trial by combat. When Gracilis charges from above, Hornet leaps to the side and thrusts back at the space she formerly occupied. When the mantis charges from the side, Hornet leaps above her, swinging down as she passes. And when she hangs from the wall, manifesting a flying disc to cut at her, Hornet grapples to the wall beside her.

They both land a  _ lot _ of hits, but none of them are  _ substantial _ hits. Hornet prefers to hit hard and fast and not have to hit as  _ much, _ then—but in a fight of this frenetic pace, her options are to hit fast or get hit herself.

A part of her is aware that she could, quite easily, die here. But that part of her is very much overshadowed by how genuinely  _ fun _ this is.

This is the first thing Hornet has done for herself in a  _ long _ time, and she’ll enjoy it till the end. Whatever the end. Gracilis shows no signs of flagging, even as Hornet herself has to retreat and bind more and more often.

Then, at last, one final hit sends Gracilis reeling back. She returns to her throne. She  _ might _ be breathing heavily, but if she is, she’s hiding it as well as Hornet is.

“So,” Gracilis says, “you aren’t a  _ complete _ pushover. I would expect nothing less from the Beast’s daughter.”

“And she would expect nothing less from you,” Hornet replies. 

The  _ if she was still here _ is left unspoken. None of the Mantis Lords bring up that  _ their _ society is still standing, while Deepnest is perhaps in worse shape than Hallownest. Would it have survived, had her mother not been a Dreamer?

Would it have survived, had Hornet never existed? 

She doesn’t know. But she avoids Deepnest, when she can.

“This challenge, of course, isn’t over yet,” Gracilis continues. She looks to her sisters, left and then right. “Dentata! Rehni!”

Gracilis’s sisters stand at their names. The left is Dentata, the right is Rehni, but none of that matters when they both charge at one red-clad spider who is rapidly realizing she might be in slightly over her head.

_ Slightly, _ though, and she can deal with  _ slightly _ .

The other sisters fight similarly to Gracilis herself. Hornet has to pick up the pace—not an easy feat when her shell already stings. But she manages. She focuses on dodging, striking back when she can and just hurling herself bodily out of the way when she can’t.

She gets lucky with Rehni, making her withdraw before too long.

She does  _ not _ get lucky with Dentata. Hornet is just a  _ little _ too slow on one of Dentata’s attacks, and that one attack is enough to send her flying almost to the spike pit. The spike pit that  _ definitely _ wasn’t there when she came in, and would not have been a problem if she had stayed in the center of the arena.

Hornet rolls, intending to push herself back to her feet by the hilt of her needle. An impossibly fast, well-placed swipe from Dentata’s lance rips her needle out of her grasp and sets it clattering to the ground, just barely out of her reach. Dentata twirls her lance in her grip and jabs with the blunt end, knocking Hornet flat on her back.

The lance is flipped once again, point now angled directly between the eyeholes of her mask. Dentata leans forward on it, scratching the mask slightly, and pinning her down. The mantis lord smiles cruelly.

Oh,  _ that’s _ hot.

“Not  _ bad,” _ Dentata says disdainfully, “but not  _ good enough. _ A pity. We had hope for you, Daughter of the Deep.”

She puts more of her weight on the lance, one foot on each side of Hornet’s dress in a way that would be very hot  _ indeed _ if her face under the mask wasn’t starting to hurt.

“Any last words? We shall allow you that much, for making it this far, and out of respect for your mother.”

Hornet considers this for a long moment. Though her face is going to  _ ache _ after this _ , _ her mask protects her from the worst of the damage. Dentata does not seem to realize this. Barring a sturdy mask, this  _ would _ be an exceptionally effective strategy for the vast majority of opponents. Without that, the pain would be incapacitating.

_ With _ her mask, she can think.

She has an idea. It is a poor one, but it is an  _ idea _ nonetheless. She cringes away from Dentata, gasps out something too quiet to be audible.

Dentata tsks disapprovingly, but lets up on the weight, and leans in. “What was that?”

“I said,” Hornet whispers, so that she leans in even closer, “that…”

All her already visible limbs stay where they are, completely motionless. Two arms are flopped uselessly to the side, two legs splayed out beneath the mantis, unmoving. Dentata is watching  _ those _ carefully, of course, and nothing further. She is, after all, the biological child of the King of Hallownest, and he had only four limbs.

But she is also the daughter of  _ Herrah the Beast, _ a spider with eight.

“Speak  _ up,” _ Dentata demands impatiently.

“You…” Hornet says even quieter, and then, so softly Dentata might not hear it, “Should have realized I took after my mother _ far _ more.”

For Hornet, daughter of Herrah, has six limbs, though she uses a maximum of four in combat.  _ This _ is why.

It pays off to be underestimated. All it takes is a swing of her fifth limb, and Dentata’s legs are swept out from under her. She falls with an indignant screech, loosening her own grip for  _ just _ an instant—

But it is enough. When Dentata has recovered, it is with her own nail-lance angled at her throat, aimed by a bug who is of two kingdoms, and would never truly belong in either. 

Dentata chuckles and says, wearily, “I yield. Well done, Hornet the Beast.”

Hornet lowers the nail-lance, then flips it and offers it back to its wielder, handle-first. Dentata takes it, and with a powerful leap returns to her throne. Hornet retrieves her needle, stowing it on her back.

She turns. The lords of the Mantis Tribe bow as one.

She bows back.

**Author's Note:**

> ngl this was an excuse for fight scene practice that i then procrastinated on finishing for... literal months oops. come on, past me, ill never get better if i dont practice! but i finally did finish this. and i really need to sleep, so ill keep my rambling here to a minimum. 
> 
> *gestures vaguely at both hornet and the mantis lords* i just think theyre Neat


End file.
